Bruins rediscovering 'killer instinct'

BOSTON – Tyler Seguin called it “one of the biggest
shifts in hockey.” Jack Edwards, with his usual flair for the
dramatic, calls it “the vulnerable minute.”

Whatever the nomenclature, the Bruins have just about perfected the
shift following a goal over the last two games.

Saturday’s fireworks against Toronto were impressive, but Tim
Thomas made it clear that the Bruins only needed one goal to beat
the Maple Leafs. Monday night, the Bruins scored two goals within a
minute of each other twice, and it was the difference against an
Islander team that briefly looked like it could steal a win on the
road.

Just 29 seconds after Nathan Horton made it 2-1 Boston at the 13:38
mark of the first period, Patrice Bergeron hit Tyler Seguin with a
feed across the slot, and Seguin added to his team-leading goal
haul with a snap shot to beat Islander starter Evgeni Nabokov
– the last shot the Russian saw, as he was then lifted for Al
Montoya.

“Well that’s a big thing for us, is definitely that
shift after a goal,” Seguin said. “It’s huge and
I think (David Krejci’s) line did it tonight back-to-back.
That’s one of the biggest shifts in hockey. So right now
we’re doing a good job at capitalizing on it.”

Seguin’s goal was the game-winner, but the other rapid pair
he referred to, collected by Krejci and linemates Nathan Horton and
Milan Lucic, were arguably more important overall.

It started with a nice play by Krejci, who fell back to pick up a
cross-ice pass from defenseman Dennis Seidenberg and put it in
front of Lucic up the left wing boards. Lucic made a strong move to
get the puck, and then himself, around New York’s Steve
Staios, then gave to an untouched Horton at the Islander blue line.
Horton closed in on Al Montoya long enough to get the goaltender to
commit, then slid the puck back to Lucic for a tap-in to make it
4-2 with 15:26 to go.

What came next was a nearly perfect sequence shift by the
Krejci-Lucic-Horton line, plus defensemen Joe Corvo and Dennis
Seidenberg, and it was the dagger the Bruins needed to bring their
third straight victory home.

The Islanders won the faceoff after Lucic’s goal, and
immediately drew back into their own end. They never escaped.
Former Bruin Brian Rolston’s giveaway on the breakout put the
puck on Lucic’s stick, and the winger sent it across to
Horton on the left wing half boards. Horton sent it slowly around
the Islander net, and Corvo made a good pinch to pick it up on the
opposite side. He gave it to Krejci, but had to make two more stops
at the blue line to keep the puck in the offensive zone.

After the second blue-line possession save, Corvo sent a pass
across to Seidenberg, who put it right back on Corvo’s stick
on the right wing. Corvo fired a slap shot that Islander goaltender
Al Montoya stopped, but the rebound fell to Horton, sitting
unmolested by New York defensemen Mark Eaton and Milan Jurcina.

One backhand swipe later, the Bruins were up 5-2 and in control for
good.

“Well we wanted to show we have a killer instinct here and we
showed it tonight again,” Krejci said. “Once we got a
one-goal lead, we don’t want to sit back and wait for them.
You keep going forward and keep playing our game so that’s
what happened.”

It’s almost a 180 from where the Bruins were at about a week
ago, left flummoxed by missed opportunities in three straight
losses including a lifeless 4-2 defeat at home to San Jose to start
the slide. Where the team then was talking about not capitalizing
on chances and not doing the little things consistently, on Monday
night all anyone could talk about was getting those things
right.

“When we score a goal, we seem to come back the next shift
and really, we’ve always emphasized how important that shift
following the goal for or against is,” Julien said.
“Our guys just have been good at responding when they go
back, and they get off to a real good shift. In Toronto, same
thing, we scored a couple of quick goals.

“Tonight, same thing. It’s just paying attention to
little details and what every part of the game means to your hockey
club, and our guys are just responding to that right
now.”